Coyotes are here to stay, Jonathan Way told more than 100 people attending a forum at the West Barnstable Community Building last week.

Way leads the eastern coyote ecology project, which tracks the animals with radio telemetry collars on the Cape and in Boston. It includes a captive study of five coyotes at the Stone Zoo in Stoneham and an educational component involving assessment of a coyote curriculum for high school students.

"This is the first study east of the Mississippi," said Way. "Little is known about eastern coyotes that live in urbanized areas."

What he's found leads him to believe that coyotes are putting down roots here. He's identified seven packs that live in the central part of the Cape. "Coyotes don't live at high density," said Way, a Marstons Mills resident who has an intimate knowledge of the local landscape through years of research on the Cape's coyotes. "Pack size is three to four members per territory and each has a (breeding) male and female, resident associates or helper coyotes (possibly offspring from the year before) and pups of the current year."

Pack sizes increase with the arrival of new pups and Way has noted up to 11 members in one pack. Each of the seven packs inhabits an area of approximately 10 to 12 square miles with the exception of the Centerville pack, which covers about six square miles.

"In mid-summer, coyotes abandon den sites and move to rendezvous sites or puppy training centers," said Way. Favored locations are cranberry bogs, golf courses, swamps or any area where there is water, cover, hunting and varied landscape.

"This is when lots of sightings occur," Way said. "Power lines, cranberry bogs, dumps and railroad tracks are just coyote highways."

A pack can put down 50 miles of tracks per night, according to Way. Coyotes travel up to 15 miles a night through the altered landscapes of the Cape. Transient coyotes, ones that do not have a pack, "fill in voids left by dead coyotes," the researcher noted. All that travel occurs between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m.

For people who fear the clever coyote, Way has some comforting numbers. He said there are only two recorded coyote bites in Massachusetts history and one known fatality caused by a coyote in the United States. He also said that dogs bite 4.7 million people a year.

"You are more likely to suffer a fatal dog attack," said Way. "Fifteen to 20 people a year die from dog attacks." He said that the best way to ease fear is through educating the public about coyote behavior.

Stephanie Hagopian, director of the MSPCA's Living With Wildlife Program, recommended going to her agency's Web site (www.wildneigbors.org) for information.

"We have an agenda to help resolve human-animal conflict in a humane, non-lethal way," she said. Hagopian pointed to suburban sprawl, which has tightened the living space for both coyotes and humans, and noted that Massachusetts is the third most populated state in the country.

"We lose 40 acres a day to development," she said. "We are encroaching on habitat. Just because we have more sightings does not mean we have more wildlife." After the presentation, Hagopian opened the floor to questions. Concerns about proximity and potential run-ins with coyotes were on the top of the list for many.

"My mother cannot go out and walk her dog because she is afraid of the coyotes," one man said, pointing to a woman sitting beside him. He said other elderly residents in his neighborhood fear the coyotes, and voiced his frustration with the presentation because it offered no solutions. "I'm glad they are coming through my yard," said Sandra Munsey of Forestdale. "They keep the mice population down. It's been four years and no rodents." Hagopian confirmed that the coyote are great at rodent control. "To take a quote from Frank Herbert's Dune, 'Fear is the mind-killer,'" said Robbie Fearn, director of the Cape Wildlife Center. "My ride home tonight is far more dangerous than any exposure to a coyote."